Ann: Lumos Receives US FDA Clearance for FebriDx, page-229

12-1 Health and Healing Primary Health Care: A Papua New Guinea Example

Papua New Guinea has had a system of village-based health workers since the end of World War II. Although the system has been upgraded and expanded since then, most health planners in the country see this system of village aid posts and supervisory health centers as the PHC approach. There have been many problems in implementing Papua New Guinea's aid post system, but rather than describe in detail why rural health services in Papua New Guinea are not as effective as they might be, I want to consider why these rural health services do not fit the PHC model more closely than they do, particularly in terms of community participation and self-determination.